Turkey Announces 3rd Dose of Vaccine for Health Care Workers
World
Asharq Al-Awsat
Tourists are seen at a beach in Antalya, southern Turkey, June 20, 2021. (AP Photo)
Turkey’s health minister has announced a third dose of vaccine would be available for health care workers and people above age 50. Fahrettin Koca said these groups, who were mostly vaccinated with two doses of China’s CoronaVac, can choose any available vaccine for their third dose. Turkey is also administering the Pfizer vaccine and will begin use of Russia’s Sputnik V shots. Turkey is allowing a third dose for health care workers and people over 50 because two doses of CoronaVac may not be providing enough antibodies after several months. There is little data about CoronaVac’s efficacy against the more infectious delta variant. Koca also announced the current six-week gap between two doses of Pfizer shots will be reduced to four. This will speed Turkey’s vaccination plan where more than 34.6 million people have gotten their first shot but only about 18% of the population have been fully vaccinated.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056711/turkey-announces-3rd-dose-vaccine-health-care-workers
Translators of 25 Languages to Assist 60,000 Pilgrims in Hajj 2021
Gulf
Riyadh – Mohammed Helal
Acting Minister of Media Dr. Majid Bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi launched, via videoconference, on Wednesday the operational plan for Hajj season 1442 H (2021) -SPA.
Preparing for yet another exceptional Hajj season under the coronavirus pandemic, the Saudi Hajj and Umrah Ministry announced preparing a team of 40 official translators that speak 25 different languages to help guide this year’s 60,000 pilgrims. With the coronavirus pandemic still affecting the world, the Kingdom had decided to limit the Hajj 2021 season to 60,000 pilgrims. The pilgrims, both citizens and residents, were selected from within the Kingdom. This move was taken to preserve the health and safety of pilgrims and ensure that the Hajj rituals are held in a safe and healthy environment with the application of preventive measures. In a Wednesday press conference, the General Presidency of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques announced employing over 8,000 personnel to help execute this year’s extraordinary operational plan that focuses on preventive measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus and ensure the safety of pilgrims. The measures ordered by the Presidency include setting up thermal cameras at gates designated for pilgrims, establishing health centers inside the Grand Mosque in coordination with the Ministry of Health, and ensuring that all front-line employees are vaccinated. More so, vaccines and masks will also be offered to pilgrims. Additionally, the holy site will be washed and sterilized ten times daily, using approximately 60,000 liters of disinfectant materials per day. One hundred pieces of equipment will be designated for cleaning the site. More than 4,000 cleaners and 11 robots will also be operating on hygiene maintenance. The Presidency allocated 40 translators who speak 25 languages to help non-Arabic-speaking pilgrims. It also secured ten radio frequencies channels to broadcast in Mount Arafat and the Grand Mosque. A live broadcast of the translations of the Quran and Sunnah channels will be played in both English and French. The Presidency also took measures to distribute bottles of Zamzam water to pilgrims.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056696/translators-25-languages-assist-60000-pilgrims-hajj-2021
Russia Races Tom Cruise and Musk for 1st Movie in Space
Entertainment
Asharq Al-Awsat
The moon is pictured above Earth in this handout photo courtesy of Col. Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency. REUTERS/CSA/Col. Chris Hadfield/Handout
Six decades after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth, earning Moscow a key win in the Cold War, Russia is again in a space race with Washington. This time though the stakes are somewhat glitzier. On October 5, one of Russia's most celebrated actresses, 36-year-old Yulia Peresild is blasting off to the International Space Station (ISS) with film director Klim Shipenko, 38. Their mission? Shoot the first film in orbit before the Americans do. If their plan falls into place, the Russians are expected to beat Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise and Hollywood director Doug Liman, who were first to announce their project together with NASA and Space X, the company of billionaire Elon Musk. "I really want us to be not only the first but also the best," Peresild told AFP, with the clock ticking down to the planned October 5 blast-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Call -- the Russian project's working title -- was announced in September last year, four months after the Hollywood project. But apart from its grand ambitions, little is known about the film. Its plot, which has been kept under wraps by the crew and Russia's space agency, has been revealed by Russian media outlets to feature a doctor dispatched urgently to the ISS to save a cosmonaut. Nor has The Call's budget been disclosed. But it's no secret that travel to space is a costly business: one seat on a Soyuz rocket to the ISS usually costs NASA tens of millions of dollars. Hinting at the film's aesthetic direction, one big name on the credit list is Konstantin Ernst, the 60-year-old head of the overtly Kremlin-friendly Channel One television network. Ernst has stage-managed some of the most important moments in Russia's recent political history and of President Vladimir Putin's career: military parades, inaugurations, the opening ceremony of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. Dmitry Rogozin, the outspoken head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, will also feature when the credits role in theaters throughout the country. He is not known for prominence in the film industry, but rather for presiding over an agency plagued by stagnation and corruption -- and for publicly sparring with Musk on Twitter. For Rogozin, 57, the film is a way to project stature as Roscosmos loses ground in technological advancement to US rivals. But it is also part of a geopolitical battle his country is engaged in with Washington, according to a recent interview he gave to a Moscow tabloid. "Cinema was long ago turned into a powerful propaganda tool," he told popular daily Komsomolskaya Pravda in June. His assessment of the role of film comes at a time when the relationship between Moscow and Washington has frayed to the point of resembling the standoff of the Cold War. Rogozin said in the interview that Cruise and Liman had initially approached Roscosmos in early 2020 to collaborate on the film. But, he said, unnamed "political forces" pressured them to give up on the idea of working with the Russians. "I understood after this that space is big politics," he told the paper. "It was then that an idea appeared to make the film". Representatives of Cruise did not respond to AFP requests for comment. In preparation for this 21st-century space race, Peresild has since late May been undergoing intensive training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City outside Moscow. When she spoke to AFP, she had already managed the centrifuge and would be getting trained in how to survive in hostile environments for when she plummets back to Earth in a Soyuz capsule on October 17. Still, she is focused on the task at hand. The tiny film set of the ISS will be a challenging space in which to work, particularly for the director, who will also handle the cameras, lighting, sound and make-up. "We will have to film in space what it is not possible to shoot on Earth," she says. Peresild said that unlike many other Soviet children who grew up with Gagarin's feats looming large, she never dreamed of going to space. She admits to feeling "afraid" when she was selected for the job from a pool of 3,000 candidates. "I am not a superhero," she told AFP. She said she had drawn inspiration from children involved in her Galchonok foundation that supports young people with disabilities. "For them, picking up a spoon is like going to space for me." They "must believe in the impossible".
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056671/russia-races-tom-cruise-and-musk-1st-movie-space
Tunisia - Mongi Saidani
File Photo: Tunisian parliament (Reuters)
Member of the Tunisian Parliament Sahbi Samara repeatedly slapped opposition deputy and head of Free Destourian Party Abir Moussi before lawmakers rushed to her rescue. It is unclear why Samara attacked Moussi, but a widely circulated video shows the deputy moving from his seat towards Moussi and started beating her. Tensions grew in the parliament after members of the Free Destourian Party protested an agreement to launch a headquarters for the Qatar Fund for Development in Tunisia. They also disrupted the public sessions several times. Meanwhile, the defense team of Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, the two politicians assassinated in 2013 by suspected Islamist militants, accused the judiciary of failing to reveal the perpetrators of the two crimes. The team confirmed that the weapons used to kill Belaid and Brahmi had not been handed over to the court, adding that an investigative judge was being pressured to disregard the case of the terrorist bombing of Habib Bourguiba Street in the Tunisian capital. The defense threatened to contact international bodies, calling for the formation of a “civilian coalition to defend Tunisians’ right to justice" and an independent judiciary that does not cover up terrorism. Member of the defense team lawyer Reda Radawi confirmed during a press conference that one of the judges threatened the President of the Judicial Council of Justice, claiming he has corruption documents that would implicate some members of the Council. This development would negatively affect the investigation in the assassination case, he warned. Radawi accused the Tunisian judiciary of concealing the report prepared by the General Inspection at the Ministry of Justice in an attempt to appoint one of the accused judges to “keep Tunisia under the control of terrorism.” He warned that over 20,000 terrorists are in Tunisia under judicial cover, asserting "we will do everything necessary to save Tunisia” from terrorists.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056666/tunisian-mp-attacks-head-free-destourian-party
Saudi Arabia on Track to Become One of the World’s Largest Logistics Platforms
Business
Riyadh - Bandar al-Mosalam
CAPTION: Saudi Arabia poised to become one of the largest and most essential logistics platforms in the world (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Authorities developing and modernizing Saudi Arabia’s logistics and transportation sector under a national strategy launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will elevate the Kingdom’s position as an international logistics platform, experts told Asharq Al-Awsat. On Tuesday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the “National Transport and Logistics Strategy” to enhance the Kingdom’s connection with the global economy and enable it to invest in its geographical position at the center of three continents. According to specialists, the strategy will not only put Saudi Arabia on the map as one of the largest logistics platforms worldwide, but it will also build up the Kingdom’s capacities and facilitate meeting goals set out by the national transformation plan, “Vision 2030.” Saudi Arabia’s idiosyncratic geographical location would enable it to achieve the strategy’s targets in the near future, they affirmed. “The National Transport and Logistics Strategy is one of the most vital objectives of “Vision 2030,” and it contains a set of major projects that enhance Saudi Arabia’s position in global logistics services, develop infrastructure, and create logistics zones,” Shura Council member Fadel bin Saad Al-Buainain told Asharq Al-Awsat. Al-Buainain indicated that one of the strategy’s objectives is to link the Arab Gulf states with a railway. This will strengthen interconnectivity by establishing a logistical network. The network will link Gulf states economically, developmentally, and socially, and boost security as well, the Council member affirmed. He stressed that the projects and objectives included in the strategy would improve the Kingdom’s logistic performance index, ranking it among the top ten countries globally. As part of the strategy, the Ministry of Transport will be renamed the Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services. Saleh Al-Jasser, the incoming minister of transport and logistics, said the strategy would help to enhance the Kingdom’s competitiveness on a regional and global level. “The launch of the National Transport Strategy aims to develop infrastructure and operating systems to achieve the objectives of Vision 2030 and increase the sector’s contribution to the GDP to 10%,” affirmed Ajlan Al-Ajlan, who chairs both the Council of Saudi Chambers and the Board of Directors of the Riyadh Chamber.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056661/saudi-arabia-track-become-one-world%E2%80%99s-largest-logistics-platforms
Kadhimi In Brussels to Activate Agreements Concluded with EU Countries
Arab World
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi held talks Wednesday with President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels (AFP)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi visited the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday where he held talks with President of the European Commission,Ursula von der Leyen. According to PM al-Kadhimi's office, he is set to hold a series of meetings with officials in Belgium and the EU to boost ties. Earlier, the Iraqi PM said his visit will focus on activating the agreements concluded with the European countries to expand the economic cooperation and help Iraq overcome the economic crisis. "Iraq suffers from a seasonal shortage in power supply. The government acknowledges it and will take measures to tackle it, given that we inaugurated four grand power plants this year and we expect to inaugurate more in the next few months," he noted. "The talks with the EU will also highlight other economic, security, and political aspects."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056651/kadhimi-brussels-activate-agreements-concluded-eu-countries
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin speaks with members of the media after meeting with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office June 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP)
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold talks to end the bloody Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has started 120 years ago. “We must forget the past, once and forever. We were not doomed to live together between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. We were destined to live together. That is our only hope for ending this conflict,” Rivlin said on Tuesday, stressing that "the State of Israel is here to stay, in eternity." “Let us build trust between the peoples, let us return to talking about the future and let us aim for a brighter and better future for our peoples.” Rivlin’s remarks came during a meeting in New York with a delegation of ambassadors from around the world to the United Nations, including Israeli Ambassador to the US and to the UN Gilad Erdan. Speaking at the gathering, Moroccan Ambassador to the UN Omar Hilale said he sees the Middle East changing. “I do not deny the dangers and difficulties, but I am very optimistic.” The ambassador said that what happened a few months ago is nothing short of historic and that nobody expected that Israel would reach agreements with Arab states. “This is an opportunity for progress, to advance dialog, to ensure our security. We have no alternative to peace,” Hilale said. However, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Gilad Erdan took advantage of his speech to lash out at the Palestinian Authority in general and Abbas in particular. “Only today, Abbas made a shameful speech considering Israel a strange colonial plant in the region,” he said. The ambassador said that it is undeniable that there is a strong bias against Israel at the UN and that antisemitism has infected too many UN bodies. “The sheer number of anti-Israel resolutions in the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, as well as the wasted discussions in the Security Council that should be focused on real threats to peace and security, like Iran, make this abundantly clear,” he noted. Erdan added that in 1947, “the UN’s 57 members voted in favor of establishing a Jewish State in the Land of Israel. Today, with 193 members, many of them allies, I am not sure that such a resolution would pass. This should worry us all.”
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056646/israeli-president-urges-abbas-hold-peace-talks
